At The Mercy Of Thy Enemy/Part 4
"Great Ancestors," Polaris exclaimed as he saw that part of the story. "It does seem to appear that Gargamel has trouble trying to rein in his anger impulses." "And that everytime he gets really angry or spiteful, he starts to shrink again," Empath added. "At that rate, he could have shrunk himself into oblivion and no Smurf would ever really miss him." Duncan chuckled at that thought. "Funny how things don't smurf out the way that you'd want them to, laddie. It's no wonder a good deal of us were waiting for you to smurf home from Psychelia and give the evil wizard a well-deserved smurfing and a fond farewell from our lives forever." "Gargamel will have to answer for how he smurfed his life here on this earth, as will everyone here, my fellow Duncan," Tapper said. "For the holy book says straight from God's own mouth, 'As I live, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God.' That's why I prefer to let the Almighty smurf that wizard's fate by His own hand and not by ours." "This smurf understands, Tapper," Empath said. "So now Gargamel's shrunk to the size of a bug. How does he start to get back to his normal size?" "Papa Smurf started smurfing two and two together when he realized what was making Gargamel shrink besides the pollution he accidentally ingested, Empath," Tapper said. And as Tapper continued his story, Empath and Polaris both saw Papa Smurf and the other Smurfs gathered around the tree stump, looking at Gargamel at his new size. Some of the Smurfs seemed worried, while others seemed like this was what they wanted to happen to their adversary all along. "Hmmm, I'm afraid that even my anti-pollution solution cannot help you, Gargamel," Papa Smurf said. "Oh, Papa Smurf, will I never be cured?" Gargamel asked, sounding fearful. Papa Smurf stroked his beard while trying to think about what he had seen so far. "Well, it seems that you shrink every time you do something bad," he said. "Perhaps if you did something good, Gargamel, you might get bigger." "Something good?" Gargamel said, as if the concept of doing good sounded very repulsive to him. "You must be joking. Good...me?" "I'm afraid it's your only hope, Gargamel," Papa Smurf said. "If you continue to get angry, you could shrink yourself into oblivion, and that will be the end of you." "Gargamel ever smurfing something good would be a miracle in itself, laddie," Duncan said to Tapper. "I believe this may be the chance I'm smurfing for, Duncan," Tapper said. "The Almighty may be smurfing into that wizard's heart to smurf him to a place of humility and repentance." "Papa Smurf, Papa Smurf," Tracker cried out, pointing to something occuring high up in a tree. "A butterfly is caught in a spider's web. I must free it or else." "Hmmm, just a moment, Tracker," Papa Smurf said. He then picked up Gargamel in his hands and carried him over to the tree where the spider web was located. "This might be a chance to test my theory, Gargamel. If you can free that butterfly from the spider's web, you might smurf a little bigger." "This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Gargamel said as he started to climb up the tree. "What possible good can doing good do? Simply ridiculous." Nevertheless, Gargamel made it to the spider's web, pulling on one of its threads to try loosening it so that the butterfly could get free. But in his struggle, the Smurfs could see that the spider was nearby and ready to make Gargamel her next meal. The Smurfs gasped as they saw the spider appear, with Painter exclaiming, "Sacre bleu cheese!" "Look out, Gargamel! The spider!" Smurfette called out. Gargamel turned and saw for himself the fearsome creature approaching. "Egads!" he cried out as he continued to struggle with the thread he was pulling on. He tried to run away, but the thread stuck on Gargamel and pulled him onto the web, which then caused the butterfly to be free of the web and fly away. Gargamel cried out for help as the spider continued to approach, but before the spider could reach him, Gargamel grew until he was big enough to break through the web and fall safely to the ground. "Are you all right, my fellow Gargamel?" Tapper asked as he and the other Smurfs now looked at the wizard in his new size. "Never felt better," Gargamel answered as he looked at himself and realized how big he had gotten, even though he was still smaller than a Smurf. "You were right, Papa Smurf. Helping that butterfly did make me grow, at least a little." "Still not enough to become that fearsome giant that he was before, and I can only hope he smurfs that way," Duncan said quietly. "I do not like the idea of Gargamel returning to what he was before this had happened, my fellow Duncan, but I'd rather him do so while learning important lessons that could smurf him into a better man," Tapper said. "Yet your holy book smurfs that if a leopard cannot change his spots or an Ethiopian his skin color, then neither can one who is accustomed to smurfing evil be able to smurf any good," Duncan said. "I am very aware of that Scripture verse," Tapper said. "But again, I'm believing that the Almighty is smurfing on his heart, and who knows what will become of our adversary if we can smurf him that the way of goodness is very good for him." ----- At that point, Gargamel followed the Smurfs as they continued to show him that important lesson he must learn for himself. "Yes, Gargamel, there's plenty of good to be done in the world," Papa Smurf said. "Sometimes it seems there's so much good to be done, it's hard to keep up." "You're telling me," Gargamel said, finding himself panting as he tried to keep up with the Smurfs who were walking ahead of him. Then Papa Smurf brought his group of Smurfs to a stop. "And I see some good you can do right now," Papa Smurf said, noticing a couple of squirrels struggling to store their nuts away in their tree. "What do you say that we help those poor squirrels?" "Whoopee," Gargamel said with a bit of sarcasm, realizing that he had no choice if he truly wanted to return to normal. The Smurfs stood and watched as Gargamel stepped forward and helped the squirrels store their nuts away one by one. Tapper, Tracker, and Duncan felt like they wanted to help, but Papa Smurf restrained them from doing so, telling them that this was something Gargamel must do alone. After a while, when there were no more nuts lying around outside the tree, Gargamel emerged panting. "Well, that's the last nut, Papa Smurf," he said. "That was very good, Gargamel," Papa Smurf said very encouragingly. "I must have carried a thousand nuts up there into that tree, and look at me...I haven't grown an inch," Gargamel complained. "Be patient, Gargamel," Papa Smurf said. "The effects of good deeds sometimes take a while." And as Gargamel waited, he suddenly started to grow again until he was now the same size as an adult Smurf. The Smurfs gasped as they saw the growth spurt. "You see, Gargamel, your good deeds are reversing the effects of your magic pollution," Papa Smurf said. "True, but how soon will I be normal again?" Gargamel asked. "That's hard to say, Gargamel," Papa Smurf answered. "You must keep up the good work or else you may never return to your normal size." "Yuck! Impossible!" Gargamel scoffed. "Papa Smurf, I was just thinking that if Gargamel spends some time in our village, smurfing as one of us, he would find that doing good is easy," Smurfette suggested. "You know, that sounds like a smurfy idea, Smurfette," Papa Smurf said. He then turned to Gargamel. "Since you have no one else you can smurf to for showing you an example of how to smurf good, Gargamel, we would like to invite you into our village as our guest." "Your guest?" Gargamel asked, sounding unsure about the invitation. "You're certain that you won't treat me the same way that I have been treating you while I'm among you?" "You have my word, Gargamel," Papa Smurf promised. "My little Smurfs will also smurf very good care of you during your stay." "There's nothing for you to fear, my fellow Gargamel," Tapper said, trying to sound reassuring. "You're among friends in our village." "You can smurf for yourself there, laddie," Duncan said in a low voice. "I'm not smurfing my eye away from this numpty wizard for as long as he's with us." "I'm not saying that you shouldn't, Duncan, but the first thing about smurfing friends out of your adversaries is to be a friend to your adversary," Tapper said. "And I suppose that smurfs from your holy book as well," Duncan said, realizing that he wasn't going to change his friend's mind. "If you insist, then I will smurf my best foot forward, but I will still be watching." ----- "And so, my friends, Gargamel became a temporary member of the village, but since we felt that his clothes would not be appropriate for the decorum of our village, we had to smurf him into something more...ahem, suitable," Tapper said. And as Tapper continued the story, Empath and Polaris both saw Gargamel being taken into Tailor's shop for a change of clothes, which ended up being a Smurf hat and a pair of pants. Gargamel looked very uncomfortable and plenty embarrassed as he endured having to stand on a stool and have Tailor make the necessary adjustments to the "suitable clothes" the evil wizard was supposed to wear. Empath found this part of the story to be rather amusing, while Polaris simply watched with barely-disguised shock at Gargamel's new appearance. "Please, Garga-Smurf, hold still," Tailor instructed, as Papa Smurf and Smurfette stood by and watched. "Oooh, 'Garga-Smurf', oooh," Gargamel muttered with great distaste. "I never thought that being a Smurf would have to mean dressing like one. You sure that this change of clothes is really necessary, Papa Smurf?" "I can never fully understand the need for humans to smurf on so many clothes, Gargamel, but if you're going to be like one of us, you're going to need to smurf something that doesn't inhibit your movements so much," Papa Smurf said. "And besides, it's not very appropriate for a Smurf to go around the village not wearing a hat," Smurfette added. "Never have I seen such knobby knees," Tapper commented as he continued to make the adjustments, "such crooked legs, such a flabby..." "Just sew the stupid pants, you babbling blue..." Gargamel started to yell, until he realized that his anger was causing him to shrink again, making him literally swim in the pants that were now too big for him to wear. "Oh no!" "Gargamel!" Papa Smurf prompted. "Blue...blue chief, uh, little Smurf," Gargamel amended, changing his attitude to be more friendly, laughing just a little bit. "Why, never have I seen such talent, such creativity in a Smurf tailor." At that moment, Gargamel grew back again to the size of a Smurf. "How good of you to say so, Garga-Smurf," Tailor said, sounding pleased at the compliment. "Oooh, 'Garga-Smurf'," Gargamel muttered again, before he felt the sting of Tailor's needle going into his skin as his pants continued to be adjusted. ----- With Gargamel's new outfit finished, Papa Smurf had every Smurf summoned together at the speaking mushroom for his latest announcement. "My little Smurfs, Gargamel will be smurfing with us for a while as our guest, so I want all of you to help him smurf good deeds so that he can return to his normal size," Papa Smurf said. The Smurfs muttered with each other, feeling rather uneasy about having Gargamel be among them in their village. "Isn't it kind of dangerous to have him here in the first place, Papa Smurf?" Handy asked. "Yeah, what if this evil wizard starts to act out against us?" Hefty asked. And a few other Smurfs also raised up their objections. "There's nothing you need to fear, my little Smurfs," Papa Smurf said. "The spell that Gargamel is under will keep him from smurfing us any harm. Every time that he gets angry or does something unsmurfy, he will shrink. The only thing that can restore him is if he smurfs some good deeds. We just need to encourage him to smurf a good deed by being a good example unto Gargamel so that he will learn for himself what is the right thing to smurf." "Well, that isn't going to stop me from smurfing some well-deserved pranks upon Gargamel," Jokey said, with some Smurfs agreeing to what Jokey was feeling with his statement. "No, my little Smurfs, we are not going to smurf advantage of the situation by using it as an opportunity to get even with Gargamel," Papa Smurf said. "We have to show him that our way of smurfing is better, not just for us, but also for everyone else, including humans. We may not have to like Gargamel, but we do have to smurf a good example of what being a Smurf truly is so others may learn for themselves. Is that understood, my little Smurfs?" "Yes, Papa Smurf," all the Smurfs said together. "I hate this," Gargamel said with his arms folded together as he stood next to Grouchy, who had his arms folded as well. "You're not the only one," Grouchy said. ----- "And so we began to help Gargamel smurf good deeds so that he could return to his normal size, though a good deal of us were smurfing our best not to smurf into the temptations of the flesh to smurf how we really felt about the evil wizard," Tapper said. "This smurf could understand the feeling among this smurf's fellow Smurfs, Tapper," Empath said. "After being the victims of his abuse and torture for so long, you couldn't expect his victims to just suddenly not want to turn the tables and have the shoe be on the other foot, as Brainy is fond of saying." "I for one would have wanted to smurf Gargamel in his place for all the times that he and his cat have been smurfing after us those five long years that we had to smurf up with him, laddie," Duncan said. "But that would not be the Smurf way of doing things, from what this one has understood about the ways of the Smurfs," Polaris observed. "Indeed not, my fellow Polaris," Tapper said. "Anyway, Painter had smurfed Gargamel to work carrying his paints with him while the other Smurfs went to play smurfball around the village." And as Tapper continued the story, Empath and Polaris saw Painter walking through the village, carrying his paintbrush with him, while Gargamel carried a stack of paint cans with him as he followed Painter. "It is a very good deed for you to help me mix my paints, M'sieu Garga-Smurf," Painter said, sounding grateful. "Oh, anything to keep myself from getting smaller," Gargamel said, sounding like he would rather be doing anything else than helping anyone out. Just then they could hear a group of Smurfs approaching from the opposite direction, with Hefty in the lead kicking a smurfball. "Go, Hefty, go," Smurfette said, running right behind him. Hefty made a powerful kick, which launched the smurfball straight towards Painter and Gargamel. Painter dodged the ball before it hit him, but it struck Gargamel, causing him to fall down and spill all the paints he was carrying. Painter turned around and saw the mess that was created. "No, no, Garga-Smurf, I did not intend for you to mix them that way," he said, sounding rather disappointed. But then that disappointment turned to bemused interest due to how the paints now looked when spilled on Gargamel. "But I must admit, you are now one colorful Smurf, ho ho." "Ha ha ha," Gargamel said, sounding vaguely amused at Painter's reaction. ----- The next thing Gargamel did was help out Smurfette with her gardening. She stood and watched as the wizard watered the flowers in her garden near her house with her watering can. "Ooh, Gargamel, it's certainly good of you to water my flowers," Smurfette said, sounding pleased. "You know, if you weren't so evil all the time, I would be pleased to consider you my father." "'Your father'...ha!" Gargamel scoffed. "You were the best plan that I ever had for destroying the Smurfs. How could you turn on me and decide that they were better than I was to you?" "That's because Papa Smurf cares about me like I'm his daughter, Gargamel," Smurfette said. "But now that you're the same size as me, maybe we could smurf amends with each other, and you can learn to be a good father." "I don't want to be a good father, Smurfette, and I certainly don't want to be good, you hear me?" Gargamel ranted. "I want to be bad, bad, bad!" With that, he jumped on top of the flowers he was watering and started to mash them down with his feet. "And I want you to be just as bad as I am!" "Oh, my flowers!" Smurfette gasped. "Gargamel, you stop that this instant!" "I can't stand being good, you little..." Gargamel started to say, before he shrank until he was the size of an ant. "Oh no, not again!" "Oh, my!" Smurfette moaned. "Gargamel, are you all right?" "Oh, yes, my sweet little daughter," Gargamel responded, his tone suddenly changed to being friendly. "As a matter of fact, I love flowers. I'll get more water and make sure they'll never get thirsty. I'll even pull out the weeds." And as Smurfette watched, she saw Gargamel pull out all the weeds in her flower bed, until she saw him grow back to Smurf size again. "Phew...oh, that was close," Gargamel said to himself. ----- Gargamel was sitting by himself by the well sometime later on when Jokey approached him. "Well, you sure smurf funny in that Smurf hat, Gargamel," Jokey commented while laughing. "Don't bug me, you little blue twerp," Gargamel snapped, before realizing that he was about to get angry and lash out, and then just calmed himself down. "Oh, I mean...what I mean is...I'm very depressed over all of this shrinking business." "Really?" Jokey said while pulling one of his gift boxes out from behind his back. "Well, here, this will cheer you up. It's a surprise." "A present? For me?" Gargamel asked. "Well, why not?" Jokey said. "I'm sure you'll get a real big bang out of it." Gargamel seemed pleased that a Smurf would think of giving him a present in the state that he was in. "Well, well, well," he exclaimed as he opened up the gift box and looked inside, only for it to explode on him. "Well..." he cried out as he fell backward down the well and landed in the water. Jokey laughed at the prank he pulled on Gargamel. But then he gasped in fear as he saw the wizard emerge from the well, looking very angry, and started to run away. "You, why, you little..." Gargamel fumed as he chased after Jokey, ready to let him have it, before he found himself shrinking again, clutching onto his pants as he was now too big for them. His mood then suddenly changed to being at least grateful. "I mean, thank you for the present. It certainly has cheered me up." And as Gargamel tried to follow it up with a hearty laugh, he grew back to being Smurf size again. Smurf to Part 5 Category:Empath the Luckiest Smurf stories Category:At The Mercy Of Thy Enemy chapters Category:VicGeorge2K9's articles